So I woke up at 3:30 am, left the house a half hour later, and drove to Blue Sky Parking in Schiller Park. I had to re-route thanks to the stalled freight train on Irving Park Road, but eventually it worked out. I made the first flight at 6 AM pretty easily. I didn't sleep much, I did work on the Sudoku puzzles in the back of the American Way magazine. I got through the Easy and Difficult puzzles. But that Diabolical one, well I'm halfway done. So I did what I would never recommend anyone do. I ripped the page out of the magazine and stuffed it in my backpack. I'm gonna finish it one of these days.
Angelo and Ellen picked me up at LaGuardia around 9:30. We drove back to Middle Village, where I changed clothes and did some unpacking. Catherine was still at camp, so that's why I planned to head into Manhattan alone for a while. I wasn't about to sit around the house with Ellen surrounded by cats, especially on such a nice day.
But since Angelo was heading into work, he offered to go with me. I agreed. Ellen even gave me her Metrocard for the subway, which wound up having $25.00 on it! So Angelo and I boarded the M train and took it to Essex St, which is on the Lower East side of Manhattan. We went to Katz's deli, where I hadn't been in five years. For all the good food we have in Chicago, a great deli is virtually impossible to find. He went with the corned beef on rye; I opted for the corned beef and pastrami combo with Swiss cheese on rye. I love that they hand carve the meat, which makes the slices thicker and taste meatier. And as they carved the meats, they handed up small sample slices of the meats we ordered. It was really cool. I let Angelo enjoy my pastrami sample. I also ordered a nosh (snack size) of knoblewurst. Months earlier, I had been watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network. This one episode was about foods with garlic and this one guy talked about Katz's knoblewurst, which is a garlicky beef sausage. I figured for $6.50, I'd give it a shot. We each got a side of half-sour pickles and a Dr. Brown's soda and sat down to eat.
The pickles, to be honest, disappointed me. They just tasted like they hadn't been sitting in the brine long enough, they tasted too much like cucumbers. The corned/beef pastrami is simply the best I have ever had. The corned beef tasted warm and moist and I was amazed how much I enjoyed the spice of the pastrami. But the knoblewurst knocked me out, probably because I had no idea what to expect. It looked like a thick kielbasa sliced lengthwise, crisped up on a flat top grill, and served on rye bread. It reminded me of a thick hot dog, loaded up with garlic. I absolutely loved it and would order it again. We walked out with our stamped tickets, which the staff marks every time a customer orders something. I was about to hand mine to the cashier, and Angelo promptly snatched it and paid for the whole meal. It came to about $50.00, which was very generous of him.
So we then took the F train and I got off at Rockefeller Center while Angelo continued on the F to the Upper East Side. The station left me right outside the NHL Store on 6th Avenue. I went inside and I noticed they had remodeled the front of the store since I had last been there. Instead of the team jerseys being lined up behind each other, it now resembles a locker room setup. I wound up buying a Rangers heritage logo banner.
From there, I walked over to Rockefeller Center. There was a Farmer's market going on, where I got a cup of cold apple cider, very refreshing on a hot day like this. I even got to sneak in a sample of apple cider donut. Tremendous. vendors were also selling fruit, breads, plants, and flowers. I even walked by a taping of Access Hollywood, sadly, Michelle Beadle was nowhere to be found. I knew the Jets team shop was on Madison Avenue, but I wasn't sure of the street. I checked the location and found out it was only two streets and one avenue away. I headed straight over and arrived in a few minutes. It was like Shangri-La to be surrounded by Green, especially with all the Yankee and Giant crap I have to be surrounded by in the Illuzzi house. I found the Jets heritage logo banner and brought it as well. So I guess the money I would have spent on Katz's and train tickets went straight to the banners.
After I left the shop, it was around 12:15. I walked six blocks south to Bryant Park on 42nd street and sat in the sun for maybe an hour. Took my sneakers and socks off and just enjoyed the chance to get off my feet and chill out. I left around 1:45 and since it was a weekday, I could take the M all the way back to Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village. The ride took me an hour and when I arrived in Queens, Catherine had just arrived home from camp about ten minutes prior. After drinking a few cups of much-needed ice water, I went back downstairs to clean up and when I came back up, she was sitting at the kitchen table eating a plate of pasta salad. Sadly, with olives. She told me that was all she had eaten all day except for the four donuts she had at camp that morning. Anyway, we left around 2:45 and took the two hour train ride to Coney Island. I couldn't believe it took two hours to go what felt like such a short distance. i mean I can drive to Madison or Milwaukee in two hours! But we had arrive by 5, because we wanted to get the Brooklyn Cyclones vs Staten Island Yankees tickets before the box office closed. This would prevent us from having to pay the online fee.
So then we walked through the amusement park and she got a lemon-lime slushie. It didn't do much for me. For weeks leading up to the weekend, she told me she really wanted to go on the Wonder Wheel together. I don't do well with heights, but I figured I may as well do it. She had us get in the swinging line as opposed to the stationary line. I wondered what that was all about. Basically, some of the cars aren't tied to the wheel, which is the case with most other wheels. But some of the cars on the Wonder Wheel slide on rails. So as we sat in the car and went up, we started to move straight out and then go up, and it looked like we were about to fly right over the edge of the wheel! But it stopped on the edge of the rail and we started moving back and forth, just like a swingset. I was still trying to catch my breath when I realized we were already halfway down. We went around one more time and that was it. At least I finally had the nerve to ride a Ferris wheel for the first time that I can remember. So then we kept walking through the park and found a guy walking around with a 20-foot boa constrictor snake. We petted him and the guy even let Catherine have her photo taken with the the boa on her shoulders.
We then took the N train one stop north to 86th Street and walked a few blocks to L&B Spumoni Gardens for some Sicilian-style pizza. I had heard about this place for years; it was only 1.5 miles from where my grandparents had lived and where my Dad grew up. Yet I had never been there before. We ordered a $19.00 half pie, which is 12 square-shaped slices. She placed the order and it was out in three minutes. I guess they prepare them in advance because the demand is so high! This was just amazing pizza. The crust was thick and crunchy, the ruby red sauce tasted homemade. The mozzarella is layered under the sauce and there was just enough to bring the whole slice together. I added a little extra oregano and parmesan cheese. Nothing else is needed, no sausage, no pepperoni, no veggies. It tastes perfect just the way it is. I topped it off with a small watermelon ice, which I split with Catherine. I would have loved the vanilla/orange sherbet soft swirl, but I passed.
We were both pretty exhausted by this point, so we headed home around 11. We took the D to the N to the M, it took a little over an hour. While she was upstairs, I drank a couple of Stellas. I flipped the dials, but nothing really interested me on the tube. She came downstairs and suffice to say, we enjoyed each other's company for a little while before saying good night.
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